In Case You Missed It — Room Is a Gripping Read

Room tells the story of Jack, a five-year-old who lives in a single room with his Ma and has never been outside. To Jack, Room is the world…It’s where he was born, where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. But to Ma, it’s the prison where she has been held for seven years.

Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack’s curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room was chosen for members of the Amnesty International Book Club by guest reader Corey Redekop, a Canadian author whose debut novel Shelf Monkey won the Gold Medal for Popular Fiction, among other prizes.

The novel was written by Emma Donoghue, an Irish-Canadian writer living in London, Ontario. Although she works in many genres, Donoghue’s best known for her fiction that has been translated into over 40 languages. An award-winning novel, Room was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Governor General’s Award. It’s also been adapted into an academy award-winning film by the same name directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Brie Larson won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Ma, and Donoghue was nominated for best adapted screenplay.

“Room is a harrowing journey…. Also brave, funny, intelligent, rational and triumphant,” Redekop writes in the Amnesty Book Club Discussion Guide. A tale at once shocking, riveting, and exhilarating — a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances. It depicts the unbreakable bond between a mother and her child.

Find a free discussion guide on the book and other reading recommendations online at http:// amnestybookclub.ca or by calling 1-800-266-3789 or emailing bookclub@amnesty.ca.